Saturday, February 17, 2018

Brought to you by Reading the Paranormal and the #boutofbooks-ers facebook group. This monthly review-a-thon is a chance to get caught up on outstanding reviews. Bring your to-be-reviewed list, block out some time, write reviews. It's that simple.

This month's review-a-thon will run from Friday, February 23rd to Sunday, February 25th.

To find out more about the review-a-thon and tentative future dates, visit the Review-a-thon page.

Eric Pate is used to making his own rules—as the director of the PARA Unit, he is the boss. Everyone rushes to obey his commands, and no one knows his secrets. No one ever gets too close to him. But then he meets her.

Ella Lancaster is tired of being a prisoner. She escaped one hell just to find herself in another, but Eric doesn’t consider her containment with his agents as punishment. He actually thinks it is a form of protection. But Eric is so very wrong. Ella doesn’t need protecting, not for anyone or anything.

But when the PARA Unit comes under attack, Ella and Eric both find themselves battling a supernatural beast that they never expected. Forced to join forces, to make a deal, Ella and Eric are soon fighting side-by-side, and their attraction for each other can’t be contained or controlled. Hot. Wild. Consuming. Ella’s deal with her devil is soon taking over her life.

And as Eric falls deeper and deeper under the mysterious Ella’s spell, his legendary control begins to crack. The beast that he has kept chained so carefully inside rises to the surface. Unfortunately, when the devil loses his control…there is real hell to pay.

Thoughts on Deal with the Devil: Okay. I didn't know what to expect with Eric's story. I mean, the guy's been kind of a jerk in the other books. Or, well, maybe jerk is the wrong word. He's driven and he does what needs to be done without regards to how it affects others and I wasn't sure I really liked him.

Buuuuut he also had a softer side. He did feel remorse over what he did to his sister and he was loyal to her. But he was still kind of a jerk.

So, you know, having Ella crash into his orbit and crack his careful mask was interesting. I have to admit, he stayed true to character when he allowed her to jump to a conclusion about him and he didn't correct her misconception. That jerk.

But then he got all tangled up over her pain and...the guy is complicated, okay? Complicated. And I liked him a whole lot more once he admitted his feelings and his secrets came out.

Meanwhile, Ella had her own issues. Several of them,in fact. Eric was only one roadblock she had to navigate.

Dark, dangerous, and not always nice, I liked these paranormals. I'm sad to see them go.

Vampires exist. So do werewolves. The creatures that you fear in the darkness? They’re all real. And the baddest of the paranormals…those who love to hurt humans…they’re sent to Purgatory, the only paranormal prison in the U.S.

His job is to stop the monsters.

Deadly forces are at work within Purgatory. The monsters are joining together—and their plans have to be stopped. FBI Agent Shane August, a very powerful vampire with a dark past, is sent into the prison on an undercover assignment. His job is to infiltrate the vampire clan, by any means necessary.

She wants to help the prisoners.

Dr. Olivia Maddox wants to find out just why certain paranormals go bad. What pushes some vampires over the edge? Why do some werewolves turn so savage? If she can understand the monsters, then Olivia thinks she can help them. When she gets permission to enter Purgatory, Olivia believes she is being given the research opportunity of a lifetime.

Olivia doesn't realize that she’s walking straight into hell.

To survive, they have to rely on each other.

When the prisoners break loose, there is only one person—one vampire—who can protect her, but as Olivia and Shane fight the enemies that surround them, a dark and dangerous passion stirs to life between the doctor and the vamp. Shane realizes that Olivia is a woman carrying secrets—powerful, sinful secrets. Secrets that a man would kill to possess.

And Olivia realizes that—sometimes—you can’t control the beast inside of you. No matter how hard you try. Some passions can push you to the very limits of your control…and the growing lust that she feels for her vampire…it’s sending her racing right into a deadly storm of desire.

Welcome to Purgatory…a place that’s a real hell on earth…

Thoughts on Marked by the Vampire: It's a dark, dangerous world these paras live in. Throwing the baddest of the bad into one confined space looks like a recipe for disaster. Sending Olivia into the heart of it looks like it will make a bad situation even worse. Especially once Shane catches her scent and will do anything to keep her safe.

Except, Olivia isn't as defenseless as she looks. She might not be able to physically match the vampires and werewolves in Purgatory, but she has her own set of strengths that keep her moving forward. Plus, Shane. He's kind of instrumental in keeping her safe.

Still, once Olivia unlocks her hidden side, she's more than a match for those who come up against her.

If only a hidden faction within the paras wasn't trying to use her for their own gain. Heck, there are a slew of different sides looking to tap into Olivia's skills. Honestly, she doesn't have a whole lot of people she can trust. And sometimes the people she thinks she CAN trust are exactly the ones she shouldn't be.

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Scenes from the Hallway, an all new novella from USA Today bestselling author Penny Reid, is LIVE and as a special Valentine’s Day gift from Penny it’s FREE!

Synopsis

From the USA TODAY Bestselling romantic comedy series, 'Scenes from the Hallway,' Knitting in the City #6.5

You know who I am.

I swear too much, I crack too many jokes, and I got a thing for Kat Tanner; a messy thing, a distracting thing, a getting-in-the-way-of-everything thing; a thing that makes being in the same room with the woman torture. Sometimes it's the good kind. Mostly, it's not.

What you don't know is how it all started. You don't know how we met, you might not know what happened in Vegas (or the morning after), and you definitely don't know what happened after that.

You want to know the story before the story? Well . . . here you go.

But be careful what you ask for. As I've discovered the hard way, you might not like it.

'Scenes from the Hallway' is a companion short prequel/short story (11k words) for the upcoming book, 'Marriage of Inconvenience,' and includes the first 3 chapters of the soon to be released novel! ('Marriage of Inconvenience' releases March 6, 2018.)

WARNING This short story contains a lot of cussing. Do not download or read if you dislike curse words in novels. WARNING

Penny Reid is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband, three kids, and an inordinate amount of yarn. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she writes books.

What's a lovely young woman doing asleep in his bed? Matthew, Earl of Selkirk, is shocked to discover it's his new housekeeper! She's a far cry from the gray-haired woman he expected. Matthew is no fan of surprises, and Annabelle Tyne is pure temptation. Perhaps he shouldn't have had her hired sight unseen.

Annabelle, co-owner of the Quality Employment Agency, is no housekeeper, but she wasn't about to lose a potential client simply because there was no one to fit the bill. Imagine her shock when the earl arrives at his London townhome and she's awoken in the night by the most attractive man she's ever seen.

Matthew is a man who lives life by the rules, but sometimes rules are made to be broken … and being bad can be very, very good.

Thoughts on When Good Earls Go Bad: Take one uptight, loner of a Scot and throw in a chatty, exuberant woman who finds joy in the simplest of things. Watch the befuddlement and sparks fly.

Seriously. It's adorable. Matthew is adorable. Probably precisely because of that above mentioned befuddlement he experiences whenever Annabelle sucks him into her orbit. She's just so thrilled with life--despite the knocks she's taken along the way--that he can't help but be enchanted by her. Plus, her complete inability to treat him with the stuffiness he's used to makes him feel like more than an analytical machine prized for only his logical mind.

As for Annabelle, she's talkative and forgetful and she's a terrible cook and none of that matters when Matthew's around. She likes him. He likes her. She might be willing and able to admit how she feels, but he's a little blocked up when it comes to emotional issues.

When Annie Daschle arrives in New York City, the only thing she can control is her list.

Not her father’s death or the loss of her home. Not the hole in her heart or the defective valve that’s dictated so much of her life. But she can put pen to paper to make a list of all the ways she can live out loud, just like her dad would have wanted.

See the city from the top of the Empire State Building: Check.
Eat hot dogs on the steps of The Met: Check.
Get a job at Wasted Words: Check.

What wasn’t on her list: Greg Brandon. And just when she thinks she’s figured out where to put him, everything changes. In the span of a few staggering heartbeats, she finds herself her caught in the middle of something she can’t find her way out of, with no clear answers and no rules.

List or no list, she realizes she can’t control anything at all, not even her heart.

Not the decisions it makes, and not the moment it stops.

Thoughts on Living Out Loud: Staci Hart likes to kick people right in the feels, doesn't she? Just give 'em the old one-two punch and leave them teary-eyed on the floor. Thanks, Hart. Thanks.

Okay, I'm going to just come out and say it. I loved Annie and Greg. I did NOT like the interloper, but...I'm getting over it. Slowly. Annie and Greg, however, were total sweethearts. Annie's reeling from the death of her father and she's determined to do all the things she's missed over the years. Things like learning to ride a bike and having her first kiss and getting a job.

Honestly, she was sweetly adorable and it's no wonder Greg fell head over heels for her.

Probably Greg's biggest hangup with Annie is her age. She's young. Barely eighteen and freshly landed in New York. She's the very definition of wide-eyed and innocent and he gets it in his head that he's too old for her. Silly man. Yet, the more time he spends with her, the more he comes to admire her and connect with her.

But he hides it. And when the douchecanoe who shall not be named arrives in the picture, he thinks he's lost his chance.

Silly, silly man.

As usual, Staci Hart has created glorious, vivid characters who steal your heart and climb into your head. The douchecanoe who shall not be named being the exception to the stealing your heart part. Jerkface.

The long anticipated installment of the best-selling and critically acclaimed F.R.E.A.K.S. Squad series is finally here…

CLASSIFIED: The Exiled F.R.E.A.K.

What’s a F.R.E.A.K. to do after all her hopes and dreams literally died in front of her? Telekinetic Beatrice Alexander went from flying around the country in a private jet, saving innocent lives from monstrous threats to living in her grandmother’s house, playing video games and drinking too much. Directionless, hiding from her problems and trauma, she will do anything not to confront her deadly actions that fateful night in North Carolina three months before. Any distraction will do.

Enter Lord Connor McInnis.

Drawn to the sexy, powerful ruler of San Diego, Beatrice soon loses herself in the passion and luxury of the vampire’s world. But when she finds herself caught in the middle of a centuries old vampire rivalry, Beatrice must decide: how far is she willing to go for those she loves…and for herself?

Thoughts on The Sin Eater: Okay. I'm going to start off by saying Bea is a HOT MESS in this book. Hot. Freaking. Mess. Her self-destructive lever's been torqued to the max and she's running on emotional fumes. Heck, she's not even running on fumes. Emotionally, she's as closed off as a person can be while they're still breathing.

Granted, she has an excellent reason for being like she is. Her last mission with the F.R.E.A.K.S, shattered all the dreams she had for the future. She blames herself for what happened and she's totally unable to face her old squad members. She has some deep-seated issues she needs to work out and she's actively avoiding all of them.

Naturally, her self-destructive leanings send her straight into the arms of Vampire Lord Connor McInnis. Which throws her dead-center in the middle of vampire politics and all sorts of other unsavory things.

Vampire politics are nothing to mess around with, man. They're messy and dangerous and Bea's telekinetic power makes her a hot commodity.

Dark and sometimes bloody, Bea's emotional journey was hard to read at times and some of her actions were almost cringe-worthy. Given the circumstances, though, she had to go through all the awful to get to a place where she was even SLIGHTLY ready to move on. Now it's just a matter of continuing forward for her.